University of North Florida
Board of Trustees
Finance and Audit Committee

Committee Members Present

Committee Members Absent

Wilfredo Gonzalez and Steve Halverson

Call to Order/Approval of Minutes

Chair Twomey called the meeting to order, recognized a quorum present and asked for a motion to approve the minutes.Trustee Douglas proffered the motion and Trustee Kendrick seconded it.The minutes were unanimously approved.

The Committee tabled the Parking Fees, Agenda Item 3, until the February 2004 meeting.

Child Care Center Fees, Agenda Item 3

Dr. Gonzalez introduced the Student Affairs staff to the Trustees. His staff was present to address questions regarding the Child Care Center Fees. At President Delaneys request, Dr. Gonzalez gave a brief history of the funds associated with the Child Development Research Center.Dr. Gonzales informed the Trustees that the current weekly fee for UNF students using the Center for their children was $88 and a request was on the table to raise the rate to $95. President Delaney asked for justification for the increased amount.Dr. Gonzalez responded by informing the Trustees that the fees had been compared within the City of Jacksonville and a regional market analysis had been performed.

Dr. Gonzalez discussed UNFs mission to provide high quality service to the students. He also discussed the ratios between students, community and faculty members that the Center served. Chair Twomey asked about capacity and what should be done regarding the Center exceeding capacity. Dr. Gonzalez stated that the Center consistently reaches capacity and that exceeding capacity with the current staff would compromise the mission of the Center, which is to provide the highest quality service possible. Trustee Kendrick requested information regarding enrollment overflow.Child Development Research Center Director, Pam Bell and Associate Vice President of Student Affairs, Everett Malcolm suggested that reference be made to page 3 of the packet of Agenda Item 3, entitled, Market Analysis for Child Care Centers. This page lists other childcare centers, their phone numbers, fees, whether they offer full or part time care, their hours of operation, the age ranges and whether or not they are accredited.

President Delaney stated that the mission of the Center is to provide quality care instead of convenience. He also stated that UNF would like to provide more physical space for the Center. He concluded that the fees needed to be increased to keep paramount the quality of the Center.Trustee Douglas motioned for approval for this agenda item to be presented to the full Board. The motion was seconded and then approved.

A&S, Health, and Athletic Fees, Agenda Item 4

Dr. Gonzalez opened the discussion by stating that the proposed $7.29 Activity and Service fee was $.79 less than the current A&S fee.The proposed $5.07 Health fees were also less than current Health fees. In contrast, the Athletic fee would be raised from $10.00 to $10.25 and the Student Union fee would be raised from $2.00 to $2.95.Increasing the Student Union and Athletics fees would enable UNF to meet its goals to open a portion of the Track and Soccer Stadium and to move toward construction of a new Student Union. Reducing the rates for Activity and Service fees and for Health fees would be accomplished by using a more realistic projection for the number of credit hours that would be generated next year. In the past, the University had been overly conservative in making FTE projections, leading to growing surpluses in revenues generated by student fees. Using the new projections would mean greater revenues for budget purposes with lower surpluses at the end of the year.The projections used for 2004/2005 budgets were more realistic, albeit still conservative.

In this discussion Trustee Douglas warned against the use of arbitrary projections because they could be manipulated easily.He suggested using a more transparent and consistent method in computing projections. President Delaney thanked Trustee Douglas for his insights and assured him that past administrations used arbitrary numbers with good motives.

Trustee Douglas asked President Delaney to speak on issues and funds regarding the UNF Student Union and the tuition increase.President Delaney asked Vice President Shuman to provide an update on the UNF Student Union. Ms. Shuman discussed where the funds would come from for the UNF Student Union.She stated that a request had been made for PECO funds, CITF funds would be allocated, and pots of one-time funds and E&G funds would be available. She stated that another possible component of funding the Student union would come from the fee increases that might occur if there was the 7% tuition increase.

Trustee Kendrick motioned for approval for this agenda item to be presented to the full Board. The motion was seconded and then approved.

Update on Follow Up for UNFs Operational Audit, Agenda Item 5

The Trustees open the floor up to Vice President Shuman.She informed the Board that while UNF did not totally agree with the Audit Report, the follow-up to this report was attached to Agenda Item 5. Ms. Shuman stated that everything was on track and headed in the right direction.She stated that the biggest fault was the inventory control and that this was progressing and would be done by the next auditing period. She also stated that the purchasing programs would be enhanced.

Chair Twomey addressed the Faculty Activity Report (FAR). Dr. Serwatka responded by stating that written reports on faculty activities were previously completed three times each year; twice on FARs and once on a facultys annual review.Academic Affairs agreed with faculty to have a narrative prepared only once each year as part of the facultys annual review. Dr. Serwatka stated that preparing this report once each year would reduce the cost in faculty and administrative time.